Saturday, April 19, 2014

The longer we wait to act on climate change, the more it will cost

by David Atkins

Naked self-interest is by far the biggest reason for failure to act on climate change. Most major corporations don't want any short-term reductions to their bottom lines, and nation-states don't want to disrupt their political networks and take on major green energy programs.

The latest report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says the effects of a warming world are not in the far-off future, but are happening right now.

And they’re taking a toll on humans as well as natural systems. Rain and snow patterns are changing. Glaciers are melting. Water supplies appear to be shrinking, and animals on land and in the oceans are shifting their ranges.
“There’s clear evidence of climate impacts today,” said Michael Prather, a UC Irvine climate researcher and lead chapter author for the U.N. panel. “Some are really obvious, some are more subtle. The issue is what the future looks like.”
Climate change appears to be reducing crop yields in some places, and extreme weather – droughts, floods, cyclones – is exposing humanity to disruptions in food production and perhaps even increased illness or death.
While some effects of climate change may be irreversible, the report has a modest silver lining: People are beginning to adapt to the changes, with governments in many places, including North America, factoring climate change into long-range planning.

But the risks to people and nature are high, especially at the higher end of estimates of potential warming in the decades to come.

The one silver lining to rule by oligarchic elites is supposed to be the ability to turn policy on a dime and to enact long-term solutions. We're not even getting the "trains running on time" out of the bargain. The top tenth of one percent are simply living in as high a style as possible and letting the world burn in the process.